Sprint 4 Retrospective: Online Tracker and PouchDB

It seems that as each sprint goes by, we tend to achieve a substantial amount more than the preceding one. This sprint is no exception. I feel it has a lot to do with us becoming more familiar with the project, as well as the Angular framework.

Our main objectives for Sprint 4 were the following:

1. Finish refactoring online-tracker to include a service.
2. Successfully install PouchDB within the AMPATH app.
3. Research and attempt using the PouchDB API to:
(a) perform REST calls.
(b) deal with synchronization.
(c) encrypt the data within the database.

Refactoring online-tracker to include a service:We were able to accomplish this. I should point out that the refactoring of online-tracker was a bit more complicated than we anticipated. Initially we thought that just moving around some code would do the trick. But once we attempted to test the code, we realized we had a series of issues that needed addressing. For example, our original service essentially wasn’t returning anything, making it extremely difficult to test. Further, there were some issues with the Observable.timer() that periodically checks for connectivity. Since it wasn’t being properly closed, it was causing potential resource leaks that seemed to slow down the whole app. Felix from the AMPATH team helped us resolve these issues. The end result is that our pull request was accepted, and is officially part of the ng2-amrs repository. I tried to document the whole process the best I could to help others in the future. If you want to check it out, the PDF is located here.

Successfully install PouchDB within the AMPATH app:We did not expect this to give us so much trouble, but ultimately we were sucessful. We were able to install PouchDB dependancies inside a new standalone Angular app, but every time we would try to install it within our clones of ng2-amrs, the app would no longer compile. With the help of another team working on offline storage, we were able to get it working. Here’s how our team was able to do it:

Research and attempt using the PouchDB API:I believe our whole team was able to read most (if not all) the chapters in the official PouchDB guide. We were able to make some progress regarding actual implementation within the AMPATH app. For instance, we were able to configure a router for an offline-storage component, and we can now link to it directly within ng2-amrs. Further, we performed some REST calls using the PouchDB API.

Going forward into the next sprint, I think we need to focus on subscribing to data using observables, and then storing that data offline. This will require further experimentation with the PouchDB API. During the next several days, we will look into encryption at a high level, but will focus primarily on data capturing using PouchDB.

Synchronization between an offline database and the AMPATH server is our ultimate goal for this project. Based on our research so far, this task in particular seems pretty advanced. We are likely going to need assistance from the AMPATH team. I have been communicating with Felix regarding these issues.

Overall, I think we worked well as a team, and as a class in general. Everyone seems genuinely interested in completing the tasks we’ve set for ourselves. Communication has been strong for the most part; we always seem to know what each of us is working on.